English
consistent
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /kənˈsɪstənt/
Adjective

consistent

  1. Of a regularly occurring, dependable nature. [from late 16th c. in the obsolete sense ‘consisting of’]
    The consistent use of Chinglish in China can be very annoying, apart from some initial amusement.
    He is very consistent in his political choices: economy good or bad, he always votes Labour!
    • 1728, E[phraim] Chambers, “Consistent Bodies”, in Cyclopædia: Or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; […] In Two Volumes, volume II (I–Z), London: Printed for James and John Knapton [et al.], OCLC 49347394 ↗, page 309 ↗, column 2:
      That author [Mr. Boyle] has a particular Eſſay of the Atmoſphere of Conſiſtent Bodies; wherein he ſhews, that all, even ſolid, hard, ponderous, and fix'd Bodies, do exhale or emit Effluvia to a certain space all around 'em.
    • 1843, John Stuart Mill, “Of Ratiocination, or Syllogism”, in A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence, and the Methods of Scientific Investigation. [...] In Two Volumes, volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], OCLC 156109929 ↗, § 2, page 237 ↗:
      When a philosopher adopted fully the Nominalist view of the signification of general language, retaining along with it the dictum de omni as the foundation of all reasoning, two such premisses fairly put together were likely, if he was a consistent thinker, to land him in rather startling conclusions.
  2. Compatible, accordant.
    • 1719 April 24, [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: Printed by W[illiam] Taylor […], OCLC 15864594 ↗; 3rd edition, London: Printed by W[illiam] Taylor […], 1719, OCLC 838630407 ↗, page 43 ↗:
      As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my Parents, ſo I could not be content now, but I must go and leave the happy View I had of being a rich and thriving Man in my new Plantation, only to purſue a raſh and immoderate Deſire of riſing faſter than the Nature of the Thing admitted; and thus I caſt myself down again into the deepeſt Gulph of human Miſery that ever Man fell into, or perhaps could be conſiſtent with Life and a State of Health in the World.
    • 1813 January 26, [Jane Austen], chapter XIX, in Pride and Prejudice: A Novel. In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Printed [by George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], OCLC 38659585 ↗, page 251 ↗:
      When I do myself the honour of speaking to you next on the subject, I shall hope to receive a more favourable answer than you have now given me; though I am far from accusing you of cruelty at present, because I know it to be the established custom of your sex to reject a man on the first application, and perhaps you have even now said as much to encourage my suit as would be consistent with the true delicacy of the female character.
  3. (logic) Of a set of statements: such that no contradiction logically follows from them.
Antonyms Related terms Translations Translations Translations Noun

consistent (plural consistents)

  1. (in the plural, rare) object#Noun|Objects or facts that are coexistent, or in agreement with one another.
  2. (Eastern Orthodoxy, historical) A kind of penitent#Noun|penitent who was allowed to assist#Verb|assist at prayers, but was not permit#Verb|permitted to receive the holy sacraments.
    • [1884, William E[dward] Addis; Thomas Arnold, “PENITENTIAL DISCIPLINE AND BOOKS”, in A Catholic Dictionary: Containing Some Account of the Doctrine, Discipline, Rites, Ceremonies, Councils, and Religious Orders of the Catholic Church, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co., […], OCLC 64590647 ↗, page 651 ↗, column el:
      [F]rom the fourth century onwards, the Eastern Church divided penitents into four classes. […] The consistentes (the last class—{{lang]


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